


The Little Dolphin Prince

by megyal



Category: Naruto
Genre: Babies, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Iruka Appreciation Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 02:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4943572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megyal/pseuds/megyal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, there was a little dolphin prince, and he lived in the Sea Beyond the Sky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little Dolphin Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1 of Iruka Appreciation Week! The prompt is 'Origins'.

I have a story to tell you...do you want to hear it? Of course you do; just look at your smile!

Once upon a time, there was a little dolphin prince, and he lived in the Sea Beyond the Sky. Oh, you've heard this before, I can tell. Shh, let me go on: so, this dolphin was the happiest little prince in that kingdom. He laughed in the water as he swam, and he splashed around in the warmth. In that kingdom, the sun is at the very bottom of the sea. It shone all the time, never moving, never going out.

He was cheerful and playful, and he was also very daring. The King and the Queen told him not to swim too near to the sun at the bottom of the sea, but the dolphin prince went close to it as often as he could; you see, the sea curved underneath the sun, like a large bowl, and sometimes the little dolphin prince could see strange little lights in the gloom beyond the sea's border.

One day, the Country of the Moon attacked the Sea Beyond the Sky. It was a horrible battle and I am so very sorry to say that many friends and family of the dolphin prince were killed. Ah, I know. It is a very sad thing to hear...oh, don't cry. Don't cry, little one. But this is how life goes. You'll find that out for yourself, one day.

The Queen and the King protected their little dolphin prince in this way: while the attack raged on, they pushed him towards the sun and then past it, urging him on and on until he fell right through the bottom of the Sea and out! The poor dolphin prince turned over and over in the darkness, past the strange little pinprick lights he had always seen. Oh, how scared he was! He had never seen the night so close before before. Finally, he splashed down into water and swam around very lonely and afraid.

Presently, when the sun finally rose in this strange place, he came upon a little island and pushed his head out of the water. In the grass, a strange figure sat cross-legged, looking out over the ocean. Many birds were gathered on the being's head and shoulders, twittering into its ears. The figure was dressed in loose robes and a wide hat which hid its face in shadow. The dolphin prince had never seen such things before, like birds and hats, but he screwed up his courage and called out.

"Hello!"

"Hello," the figure answered, turning its head to look in the direction of the dolphin prince. The voice was very deep and quiet.

"Hello!" the dolphin prince called again, not quite sure how to go on. He settled for: "Er...do you know where I am?"

"Yes," the other answered, and went silent. The poor little dolphin prince waited for more, but the seated person said nothing else.

"Well," the little dolphin prince asked, "Could you tell me?"

"I could," was the short response, and there was nothing else, like before. 

The dolphin prince was very upset. He yelled, "Why won't you answer me properly!"

"Oh," the strange creature answered in a now-careless tone. "But I am."

Flustered, the little dolphin prince ducked back under the water to ruminate for a little while. Obviously, he wasn't asking the questions in the proper way. So, he popped up back to the surface and asked, "How do you know what you know?"

At this, the seated figure pulled back its hat to reveal a face made of rough-woven cloth, with stitched eyes and mouth. "I know because I am the kami Kuebiko. I cannot move from where I sit, but I can see all and I know everything. You have asked me the right question, and so I will tell you what need to hear:

You are in the land of the humans, the World Under the Sun. You can get back home again, but first you must find a fox with innumerable tails and give them the gift they never had. Then, they can help you back to the Sea Beyond the Sky. Your mother and father are waiting for you, for they send prayers that you will come back to them one day."

"Thank you, Kuebiko-sama!" the little dolphin prince said loudly and politely. "When I go back home, I will send you a shell from one of our beaches. It is a shell that can carry you anywhere!"

"Thank you," the kami said, and the little dolphin prince set off to find a fox with innumerable tails. In those days, finding a fox was easy, for they were more numerous than they are today. A fox with innumerable tails was even easier, for they shone like fire, like small suns.

Even so, the dolphin prince swam for many days, because he didn't know what a fox looked like, and eventually had to ask the curious birds which had followed him from where the kami Kuebiko had sat. They told him, but as he searched he found that none of them had innumerable tails. They had ten or twenty or even fifty, but the little dolphin could not find the right one.

He was swimming in sad little circles near a beach one day, his thoughts morose because he thought he would never see his parents or his home again, when he heard high yipping. He lifted his head from the water and stared as he saw a very small fox sitting on the sand, staring back at him with amber eyes. So many tails floated up behind it that the little dolphin could not count them.

"You are a fox with innumerable tails!" the little dolphin squeaked, and splashed around for joy. The fox just looked at him with a slight sneer.

"I am not A fox," it sniffed. "I am THE fox. There is no one else like me!"

"Oh, alright," the dolphin said companionably. "Will you carry me back to the Sea Beyond the Sky if I can give you the gift you never had?"

The fox laughed raucously. "But I have everything I want! I have jewels and gold!" To one side of the fox, a pile of great riches appeared. "I have trinkets and trifles and every single plaything!" On the other side, another heap appeared, made of knick-knacks and baubles: enough to please a small fox for eons.

The little dolphin prince was quite crestfallen. He bobbed in the water, thinking deeply and then swam up again.

"But, Friend Fox," he said. "Do you have someone to play with?"

The fox blinked at the dolphin prince. "...no?" it squeaked. "Do you...would you like to play?"

"Of course!"

The little dolphin prince and the fox with the innumerable tails played for many days. They raced and laughed and threw trinkets in the sea with great abandon. The fox was very happy and it said, "You have given me a gift I never had. I will take you back to the Sea Beyond the Sky."

The fox was a creature of great power. It created a tower of water all the way up to the sun.

"Goodbye!" the little dolphin prince called as he swam up the tower. "Thank you!"

"Goodbye!" the fox replied. "Goodbye!"

And so it was with great happiness that the little dolphin prince was reunited with the King and the Queen. He kept his promise and sent back a magic shell for the kami Kuebiko; and the little prince became even braver than ever. Quite regularly, he swam from his own kingdom to the World Under the Sun to visit his friends, and he grew to be the strongest ruler of the Sea Beyond the Sky.

The end! Ah, I knew you would like that.

***

Kohari lay on her side and watched Ikkaku whisper at their newborn son. In his arms, tufts of dark hair peeked out of the soft yellow blanket. A tiny fist waved out, like the village's smallest commander.

"What are you saying to him?" she murmured and Ikkaku jerked as if she had thrown a kunai at his head. The baby fussed, and he made soothing noises. Kohari smiled to herself; Ikkaku, who claimed that he couldn't possibly touch the baby because his hands were too big, too trained to kill, now held his son with a gentle sort of caution.

"A story," Ikkaku said, staring down at the baby with a very soft expression. "Something my grandmother told me, from when she grew up in the Land of Waves."

"Oh," Kohari said, fighting back a yawn, fighting the exhaustion which tugged at her consciousness with dark, soft touches and pulled her back to sleep. "What's it about?" she mumbled, not quite sure if she had formed proper words.

"A little dolphin prince," she heard him say. "Isn't that so, Iruka? Ah, just look at that smile."

_fin_


End file.
